Beyond Church Folk

We ask what matters most, then we test whether our week backs up the answer. We confront the difference between church folk and true followers of Jesus, and we choose one concrete act of fruit that proves repentance is real.
• asking whether Jesus is first or just the right answer 
• rejecting consumer church and copycat success metrics 
• walking through Matthew 3 and John’s call to repentance 
• defining repentance as a change of mind that changes action 
• breaking down Pharisees as legalism and works-based righteousness 
• breaking down Sadducees as feelings-first faith and relative truth 
• warning about hypocrisy that blocks people from God 
• explaining “brood of vipers” and the danger of religious appearance 
• reframing God’s people as a kingdom of priests sent to make God known 
• applying Luke 3’s “what shall we do” into daily practices 
• challenging the church to equip people to serve and disciple 
• calling for fruit as evidence of following Jesus 
Our challenge this week is simple. For those of you in here that say you follow Jesus, feed someone, close someone, hold a door for someone, love someone, forgive someone, pray with someone, tell someone about Jesus, and produce fruit. All you gotta do is one thing this week.

Transcript

The One Thing That Matters Most

Josh 0:00

Alright, so our challenge from last week was simple. All you had to do was answer this one question. What is the single most important thing in your life? And like we talked about last week, I know you know the right answer was Jesus, but as we worked through it, we went, okay, but is there evidence in my life to suggest that yes, that is actually the most important thing in my life? Or is it just I know the right churchy answer to say? Now that being said, did anybody have something that they wanted to share from that? Alright, remember this only works if you're doing stuff too, because this is never meant to be a consumer-driven event. In other words, it is not your role to just sit and be. And John's gonna get into that a lot today. But we are gonna start with this and open up with our big idea, which is this. Are you church folk? It ain't in there?

unknown 1:00

No.

John The Baptist Confronts Religion

Why Copycat Churches Miss The Point

Who The Pharisees Really Were

Who The Sadducees Really Were

Hypocrisy And The People Jesus Rebukes

Brood Of Vipers Explained

God Chooses A People To Send

Bear Fruit With Real Repentance

The Why Behind What You Do

Josh 1:00

Alright, my bad. Are you church folk? And I know right now you're probably like, I'm in church, ain't I? Doesn't that make me a church folk? So let me follow it up with this. Is that what we're called to be, though? Like, are we called to just come to an event, like I just said, once a week, and we just kind of show up and we kind of go through the motions and we kind of sing the song, and then what? What is everybody going to say at the end of today's service? I'll see you next week, because that's what we know. We have already written off that we are not gonna see or talk to each other throughout this week. And is that what we're called to do? So as we jump into it, we're gonna start in verse 7. In verse 7 of Matthew 3, it says this. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, You brood of vipers, who warn you to flee from the wrath to come. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father, for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children of Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Now there's a lot John is actually saying in all of this. And just to sum it up, remember, John has been out in the wilderness, right? He's on the edge of town, he's out by the river Jordan, and he is calling people out to him, right? He is standing in the wilderness and he's sitting here going, Hey, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world has entered into creation and is ready. He is about to start moving, so we need to be baptized. We need to, and he uses this word over and over. You guys are gonna get so tired of hearing this word by the time we cover Matthew. We need to repent. Now remember, we talked about what repentance is and what it isn't, but just to sum it up, repentance is not behavior modification. It is not simply, hey, do more good than you do bad. Repentance is an actual change of mind. It is actually seeing things differently, and in seeing things differently, doing things differently. But remember, belief will always precede action. Belief will always precede action. So all of these people are coming out. Remember, it said from all over Judea, people are coming to hear John's message, and they are getting baptized, and they are confessing their sins, and they are sitting here going, hey, I'm ready to do something different. I'm ready to surrender to this new king who has come into creation. And just like any good church folk, the religious leaders see what's happening, they see this growing number of people going out, and what do they do? We want to go see what's happening. I will tell you right now, I've been doing this a better part of a decade now. Not here, but just throughout, different in various churches. I have been a part of churches that have literally sat here and went, hey, Church A down the street just did this, we need to do it too. Church A just had this fall festival and they had this and this and this, and and they put the pictures up online and look at the turnout that they had, we need we need to do the same exact thing because if it worked for them, it's gonna work for us. Well, there's a lot of problems that go with that. Number one, you're not church A. God didn't call you to the same things He's calling Church A to. And number two, if all you're doing is trying to parrot and copy someone else, what message are you really preaching? If all you're doing is sitting here trying to go, hey, but this worked for them, so if we do it, it'll work for us. Number three, what metric are you using to judge success? And we looked at this last week, right? Jesus' goal was never crowds. In fact, when the crowd would get too big, Jesus would say these crazy things like, eat my flesh and drink my blood, and then just walk away to thin out those who were following simply for what they could get from him. So John sees these religious leaders coming out. John sees these church people coming out, and he immediately, as soon as he sees them, goes in on them. Now, before we get any further, because I know everybody in here is kind of familiar with these terms, Pharisees and Sadducees. However, we are going to see them a lot as we work through the book of Matthew. And I want to stop and I want to take a moment real quick to really explain who they are. Because it's very easy for us to sit here and go, hey, these are the church leaders. But remember, they didn't have church the way we have church now. In fact, until we get to Matthew 16, we don't even see the word church in Scripture. So, JT, go ahead and put up that slide that says Pharisee. So on both sides of the screen, you're gonna see some things. Number one, we're gonna look at Pharisees. And the easiest way to remember this is the Pharisee says, Isn't it fair, I see? Alright? They are consumed with the law. Anytime we see, like the lawyer asked Jesus or something of that nature, they are talking about a Pharisee. Pharisees believe that righteousness came from the law and keeping the law perfectly. Now, what's the problem with that? You can't keep the law perfectly. That's the whole point of the law, is to show us we fall short. However, the Pharisees would be the ones that would stand in the temples and they would literally point fingers all day long and they would go, you, you, you, you, you, and with never going me. Now, they're ultra legalistic. Some of you have come from churches that are ultra legalistic that sit here and go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up. Why are you not wearing a dress down to your ankles? And what is this makeup on your face? And although those are things that I'd really try to push on my daughters, I also know that that has nothing to do with their salvation. However, that is what Pharisees would focus on. They believe that rituals brought salvation. It was all about were you circumcised on the eighth day? It was all about did you do the proper cleansings? It was all about, did you do the motions that the law has stated? The Pharisees are also like descendants of the group that took the Ten Commandments and made the 613 commandments. Remember, when we think of Pharisees, it is all about self by doing works to justify salvation. They believe in a works-based salvation. Here's the thing when you appear before the judgment seat of Christ, yes, 2 Corinthians 5 tells you, you will be judged according to that which you have done, whether it be good or evil. However, here's what's never gonna happen. God is gonna look at you and go, hey, you did more good than bad, so go ahead and come on in. Because all of us, if we are not in Christ, you have done more bad than good. None of us need a reminder of how bad we can be. None of us need a reminder of all these thoughts that go through our head. The Pharisees, that's what they did. And the Pharisees lastly wanted to be separate from society. In fact, the Pharisees would wake up in the morning every morning and say a prayer that went like this Dear God, thank you that I am not a Gentile or a woman. Thank you that I am in your sight. Everything else outside of them is evil and wicked, and they believe that their rituals are what bring them closer to God. Then the other group we're gonna see a lot of is the Sadducees. And the Sadducees are Sadducee because they did not believe in the resurrection of you and me. Okay? The Sadducees are the other side of the Pharisees. When we see things like the Sanhedrin, it is the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the scribes. Scribes, just for those of you that may not know, and obviously they're not up on this slide, scribes were like Pharisees in training, and all they did was copy things. Hence why they're called scribes. They would copy scrolls, they would copy notes, they would make the minutes and all of that. But the Sadducees, they're hyper-religious, and they they believe in an experiential worship. They believe that it's all about what we feel, and that makes them ultra-liberal. Truth to them was very um, what's the word? Relative. In other words, you could have your truth and I can have my truth, and they both can be true at the same exact time. The problem with that is then where do we have truth? Because if truth changes, it's no longer truth. They're ultra-liberal, they believe spiritualness is what brings about salvation. They're all about the experience, they're all about what they feel, and they use self to justify that. The Sadducees are a smaller group, they're not as large as the Pharisees, they don't have as much political control as the Pharisees do. But everything they do is guided by feeling, and they desire to be loved by society. They were big compromisers. In fact, they were the first ones to go to Rome and go, hey, look, here's the deal. You can believe what you believe, we'll believe what we believe. But hey, we can do this together. But again, we see things later like Jesus going, do you know or uh James going, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? These two things can't coexist in the same sphere. Now, these are the people that we are gonna see over and over and over again as we work through the book of Matthew. And the biggest thing that we have to keep in mind is these are the only people that Jesus actually rebukes. These are the only people that Jesus goes to and goes, No, you know better. See, think about like the woman caught in adultery. She's caught in adultery, in the act of it. And when they drag her out into the street, Jesus doesn't look at her and go, you dirty, filthy, and then fill in the blank because there's kids in here. What's he do? He gets down face to face with her. He kneels down with her and he goes, Where are they who condemned you? If they do not condemn you, neither do I, go and sin no more. But you know who he rebukes right before that? The Pharisees that drug her out of the house. He tells them, hey, he without sin cast the first stone. And what he's trying to remind them of is you aren't perfect either. You don't get it either. You're not following me either. Yeah, okay, you caught her doing something. The only difference between her and you is no one caught you doing it. It's the same thing I tell JT all the time. I can speak to things in his life from experience. The only difference is I didn't get caught doing it. But that doesn't make it right. Kids do this all day, every day, right? They do something wrong, and it's like, well, if you don't see me, then is it wrong? And we can blame the kids for doing stuff like that, but if you're an adult in here, understand you do it too, don't you? Like any of you, you change who you are when you come here in comparison to who you are when you're not here. Seriously, I've been to people's houses, and it's like, mmm, I know y'all don't act like this on purpose. And it's like, dude, just be you. Because see, when we're the fake you will always be fine. I learned very early on there there should be people in my life who can who have seen me discipline my kids. Because if we're not close enough for you to see me discipline my kid, guess what you can't do in my life? You can't go, hey man, that's wrong. We can't have those kind of conversations. That's why I try to be the same, whether I'm standing in front of you or I'm out here. This is why you guys have seen me struggle so many times, and my greatest fear is to be up here preaching, and one of those nice, colorful four-letter words just flows right out. Because I try not to change who I am, which means I struggle with it out there too. And what we see is these are the people that John sees coming to his baptism. These are the people that are going to be constantly rebuked throughout scripture. In fact, in Matthew 23, Jesus even tells them, but woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces, for you neither enter yourself nor allow those who would enter to go in. Imagine if this is how God described our church. You hypocrites. You're not going in, and that's fine, that's your choice. That's what Jesus is telling them. You don't have to come in, but stop keeping people from coming in too. Because again, these Pharisees would sit here and go, No, that's not how you can get to God. You have to be perfect, you have to know everything, you have to do the right rituals in the right sequence in the right steps, or you can't come into this. You are literally keeping people from coming to God. Some of us in this room, you may be the reason people are not coming to God. Because your search for perfection is so much that people are sitting here going, I can't measure up to that. You want to know the easiest way to keep your kid from being able to move forward in life? Put them in despair. Set that bar so high that they go, no matter what I do, I will never reach that. Because if that's the case, what winds up happening? What's the point of trying? I'm never gonna be that good. And when we make this all about perfection, one, we forget that we are not perfect, and two, we set that bar so high that everybody else on the outside is going, if y'all can't do it, and you're good people, then how am I, who is a screw up, going to be able to do this? See, these church folks, these are the people that are supposed to be leading people towards God. These are the people that are supposed to be sitting here going, hey, the king has come. And yet these are the people that are sitting here putting barriers in front of people to get to God. So, like I asked in the beginning of the message, are we church folks? Is this us? Are we a Pharisee? Are we a Sadducee? Are we the people that are keeping people from God because we are doing it going, hey, nope, it's gotta go like this? Or are we the people that are sitting here so wrapped up in our feelings, so wrapped up in what I experience that we're sitting here going, oh, I need this, I need this. Look, there are many services that are happening right now that are driven by fog machines and lights and amazing bands. And you'll feel something. The same way you'll feel something if on Friday night you head out to downtown Orlando or you go to this amazing concert. And I'm not saying we shouldn't experience God. 100% you came here this morning to experience in a moment with God. But guess what? You should be able to do that on a Monday in your car. Because if you're not doing it then, what's the point of doing it now? But on the same hand, we should know why we're doing what we're doing. This is why in John 4, when Jesus is talking to the woman at the well and she goes, Hey, I heard that we're gonna worship on this mountain, but your people worship on this mountain, and Jesus goes, You don't get it. It's not about which mountain you're worshiping in. Because you need to worship in spirit and in truth. We need to have both of these things that these Pharisees have and these Sadducees have, and we need to be able to put them together. But John looks at these religious folks and he says, This, you brood of vipers. Now, some of this I think we lose in translation. Because we sit here and go, hold on. You brood of vipers. Like, there are way better cut downs that I can come up with. And there probably are. Like you've probably said worse things to that car that cut you off on the way here. However, let's look at this. This word brood. Does anybody know what brood is? It's not a word that I hear a lot, so I don't think we we use this word a lot. Alright. In the Greek, it's this word genema. And what it means in another English word we can use instead of brood is offspring. So John is sitting here, when he says you brood of vipers, he's sitting here going, you offspring of snakes. These vipers that he's referring to, these uh these snakes were ultra, ultra poisonous, but they look like sticks. Like they would get into the deserts and then they would just like freeze, they would look like a stick until something that it wanted to eat came near it, and then it would attack and it was ultra poisonous, so it would be able to kill it really quick. Well, if you're a person walking through, and I'm just gonna use JT because if you've ever been around JT anywhere in like where there's woods, he is just fascinated with sticks. In fact, he'll pick up sticks and tell you, like, he'll rate them on what is a perfect stick. Him and our dog have fought over sticks in the backyard because they both wanted to play with it. Now, this being said, he would find these sticks and pick them up, but this stick would turn around and bite back. And what John is saying to them, they would have been very clear with knowing. And Jesus rewords it in John 8 44 when he says this, he's talking to them, to the religious leaders, and he says, You are of your father, the devil. And your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Here's what John and Jesus are both calling these religious leaders. You're the devil. John calls them the offspring of vipers or the offspring of the devil. Uh-oh. Because these are the religious folks. These are the church folks. These are the people that should be different, and yet Jesus is sitting here going, You're the devil. The same way when we get to Matthew 7, he's gonna say this: Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, didn't I? Didn't I prophesy in your name? Didn't I cast out demons in your name? Didn't I heal people in your name? And I will say, Depart from me, for I never knew you, you workers of lawlessness. Understand in that interaction, Jesus isn't talking to atheists, he's not talking to Muslims, he's not talking to Hindi, he's not talking to Buddhists, he's talking to people that would sit here and go, Hey, I believe. So it is possible to sit in this room week after week after week and go, Yes, I believe, I believe, I believe, and yet still be very far from Jesus. Because how many of us have ever really sat down and went, you know what, I'm not a church folk. I don't want to be a brutal viper. I don't want to be an offspring of the devil. I want to be a follower of Jesus. I want to do the things that Jesus said, and I want to do the things that Jesus is putting in front of me. Because John and Jesus are both telling the church folk you're from the devil because they are only worried about themselves. They are taking what God meant to show the world and trying to gain their own kingdoms. Understand this why does God choose Israel? And I'm not asking specifically why Israel. Could have chosen any people he wanted to, but why did God choose a people to begin with? Like, why didn't God just go, hey, this is for everybody? Well, in Exodus 19, we see this. God chose Israel for the reason to make him known by telling them, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel. God chose a people to make himself known to because those people are supposed to go make God known. They're supposed to be a nation of priests. So let me ask you if you're sitting in here and you're like, hey, like I know God, who are you making God known to? Like, who are you telling about God? How are you a nation of priests? Because I'm gonna go out on a limb and go, we're probably not. We're probably not sitting at the barbecue going, hey, you know what? No, let me tell you about this Jesus guy. We're probably not sitting at the party going, you know what, no, I'm gonna tell you about this Jesus guy. We're probably just doing what everybody else is doing and talking like how everybody else is talking, and we're only worried about the here and the now, and and we're talking about this war, or we're talking about this famine, or we're talking about this cryptocurrency, or we're talking about this thing that we saw, or that thing that we saw, and that's the only things we're worried about. But yet we were called to make God known. We're not called to make our kingdom great. We're called to make God's kingdom full. See, John calls these or sees these church folks and immediately calls them a brood of vipers, and then he switches it and he says to them, You want to be baptized? Bear fruit in repentance. Here's what John's doing. Put your money where your mouth is. Stop with just the lip service. Because that's what we've seen up to this point. Well, I'm a Christian. I believe in Jesus. Dude, you can tell me this all day long. I tell, if you have kids that come here, I'll tell you right now, in their Bible class they have heard no less than 15 times throughout the year, you can tell me all day long you believe, but the fruit is actually what shows it. See, he he tells these religious leaders, hey, you want to be baptized? Cool, come be baptized. But show me fruit. Bear fruit in repentance. Because repentance is what we're called to. Repentance is this. I literally see things differently. I am literally changed from the inside out. Because understand, you are only strong enough to stop doing whatever it is you think is bad while you are strong enough to stop doing whatever you think is bad. What happens when you're no longer strong enough for it? What happens when you've had that bad week, or bad month, or bad year, or bad whatever? What do you fall right back into? You want to know why we backslide? It's not because of your strength, your dis your discipline, your devotion. It's because we're not changed on the inside. We don't see things differently. Like when I quit drinking, understand I don't struggle with that. Like if I'm around other people that are like drinking, I'm not like, oh God, I really want to drink. Like I sit here and I go, I don't even view it the same way. My first thought is this I don't want to wake up like that tomorrow because I know what that is. And to quote the great Hank Williams Jr., the hangovers hurt more than they used to the older you get. And instead of it just being a day, sometimes it's like two or three days. And I go, so I don't want that. And then I went, why did I drink to begin with? I was just trying to mask what was going on inside anyway. I hated myself and who I was, so I went, you know what? I'm just gonna push this down. Now, this isn't a, hey, drinking is a sin kind of thing. This is a personal conviction I had, and I went, nope, not gonna do that. Because I wasn't sitting here going, hey, I'm gonna have a couple of drinks and enjoy the company of those around me. I was sitting here going, hey, I'm gonna try to bury all of this stuff that I have going on inside of me. And instead of going to the cross and instead of repenting, I went, I'm strong enough, and I got this. But see, when we're changed on the inside, we see things for what they are. Introspection is a good thing. How many of us take time to do it? The why matters way more than the what. The why is what makes it a crime. And here's why. Any crime you see throughout, like if I tripped and fell and I hit someone, right? Is that battery? No. Because my intention wasn't. My why wasn't I went to hit. Now, if I just pull back and I slap Gabby right across the face right now, is that battery? Yes, because you could very easily go, here was your intention. Repentance is what changes intention. It changes the why. And when the why changes, everything else does. You guys hear me say this all the time. If you never change the input, the output won't change. But if you change the input, the output has to change. It can't not change. See, if we're not seeing things differently, let me ask you, first and foremost, do you have a different heart? Like if you're not seeing anything differently, if you're just continuing to do the same things, then were you given a new heart to begin with? And if you weren't given a new heart, why not? Is it possible to sit here and get wrapped up as the Sadducees would in what I feel and go, yes, I want to change? Yes, it is. But if I wasn't given a new heart, then my first step is I need to decide, do I want a new heart? I need to sit here and go, hold on, do I want things to be different? Do I want to follow after Jesus? Do I want to look more like Jesus? And if my answer is yes, I need to sit here and decide and go, you know what? I need to repent. I need to change. I need to have this. Because if you were to look at this same section we're looking at, Luke 3 gives us a deeper view of what's actually happening. So John is preaching and he's saying all of this, but he's gonna show us in Luke 3 what repentance actually does. See, in Matthew 3, it doesn't show us this, but it says, and the crowds asked him, this is after he has called them a brood of vipers and told them to bear fruit in repentance, and after that, and the crowds asked him, What then shall we do? If that's not your first thought, then we aren't changed on the inside. Think about it, Acts 2, when Peter gets up and he preaches on the day of Pentecost. What do the 3,000 people that come to believe in Jesus do? What shall we do? This is what repentance causes in our hearts. What shall we do? And he answered them, John answers them. Whoever has two eunuchs is to share with him who has none. And whoever has food is to do likewise. Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, Teacher, what shall we do? Now, tax collectors, and there's a reason why they do that on a separate verse, because these were like the most evil scum and vile people of their time. Because not only are you a tax collector, which none of us like tax collectors, right? You're taking my money for nothing. But on the flip side of that, you're also overcharging me so that you can get rich, and you're taking the money from me, and you're the ones who are paying for Rome to be here. So you're the ones that are causing our oppression. So they really did not like them. That's why it's a separate line. But yet he's showing us that even tax collectors were coming and being baptized and saying to him, Teacher, what shall we do? And he said to them, collect no more than you are authorized to do. In other words, don't get rich off of your own kinfolk. Don't, don't, yes, you got a job to do and do it. But don't do more than that. See, this is what repentance is. It's thinking differently. It's sitting here going, okay, what should I do? What do I need to be doing? And then doing differently because I'm thinking differently. It's sitting here going, hey, you know what? My routine and rhythm in life isn't working. I need to do different. It's sitting here going, you know what? Like, apparently how I've been disciplining my child isn't working because I'm not getting results. So I need to do something differently. It's producing fruit or actions that are different because you see Jesus for who Jesus is. And this is what I say all the time. It is impossible to see Jesus for who he is and not do anything about it. So if you're not doing anything about it, you don't see Jesus for who he is. And then John ends in verse 10. He ends with these two things. Number one is this he tells the people, do not think because you are Abraham's offsprings that you are good, because God can raise up these stones to be children of Abraham. Here's what that means: God doesn't need us. Those of you, I mean, everybody in here at this point I'm sure knows JT is rebuilding a truck, right? Now, when we go over and we work on this engine, who do you think is ultimately doing the majority of the work? Me, right? In fact, if JT never went over to help me, do I need JT there? No. I could probably put the engine back together a lot faster. In fact, it probably the truck would probably be in the parking lot if I was the one working on it. Let's be honest. However, do I absolutely love JT being there, working on the truck with me to death. We have some great conversations. He gets to learn new life skills. All of these things are good things. God does the same thing with us. Listen, God doesn't need any of us. God wasn't lonely in eternity past and went, you know what? Here's what I'm gonna create. I'm gonna create a bunch of like rebels who are just going to irritate me over and over and over and not listen to anything I tell them to do. Like, who in their right mind would be like, that's what I want to not be lonely? Someone that I can fight with. See, God wasn't lonely. He didn't need us. Understand that God could take the chairs that we sent silently and motionly in. And he can make these chairs worship him if he so desired. He's not sitting here trying to beg. He's not sitting here going. What he is sitting here saying is this is what I called you to. Guys in here that love choice, it's your choice though. We can sit up, you know what, we're gonna close in song, just like we do every other week. And here's what the majority of us in this room are gonna do. How is that worship? Honestly. How is it worship when I'm up here preaching for you just to be like, what shall we do? I ask a lot of questions. How come there's no communication? I would stop my message at any point if someone was like, hey, hold up. Let me dig deeper into this with you. I don't care what I prepared that week. Because you know what? If I don't get to it this week, guess what I can do next week? Charles Spurgeon preached the same message to his congregation three weeks in a row. And on the third week, someone came up to him and they were like, hey, I don't know if you know this or not, but you preached that last week. And he looked at them and went, You obviously don't pay attention to. I preached that two weeks ago. Think about that. And most of us, that's our life. We don't come here so that I can yell at you. Unless you're some like sadistic kind of like person, you're not sitting here going, hey, you know what? I want to show up so that I can hear how worthless I am. We come here to be equipped to go out there and do the things that God has put in front of us to do. We come here to be different. That's why I started the message by going, hey, you know what? Here, we're gonna do announcements different. Is it little? Absolutely. But if you can get up here and just read, hey, here's the things that we have coming up, guess what you're going to eventually be able to do? Go out there and go, hey, here's who Jesus is. You guys, we don't have to all go to seminary to be able to preach the gospel. Peter could barely read. In fact, most scholars believe that Mark is Peter's gospel, written by Mark, because Peter couldn't write it down. He's a fisherman. If you know anything about us fishermen, what are we not known for? Our intelligence. But we can catch some fish, can't we? We can feed you. Peter had no problem being bold. He's always the first one to stand up and say something. Even when he's not right. And see, in some of us, that's what we need to do because we're going to end with the other side. So God can raise up these chairs to worship, right? We're going to read the other ending that he ends with is this is every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I know most of us in this room aren't farmers. Alright? The only one in here that I think could like really put a stake in that would probably be Miss Carl. And that's only because she's from like, y'all know Marion County, right? Like, there ain't nothing out there. But here's what would happen at the end of every season. Farmers would go out into their field, and any tree or vine or bush that did not produce fruit, they literally just cut down and they burned it. Because that tree is literally useless. And it's taking up nutrients that other trees that are producing can use. So when John gives this metaphor, the the farmers of the day would have very well understood, I'm a tree. Every single one of us is a tree. The question isn't, are you a tree? The question is, are you producing fruit? Because if you're not producing fruit, you are worthless. And that's what he's saying. See, we have it so twisted in the American church. I started with consumerism, right? This is not designed so that we can be consumers. Last week I said it and it was a throwaway statement. Like, in other words, it just came off the top of my head. But this week I want to I want you to understand this. The church isn't here so that you can be fed. The church is here to give you an opportunity to feed someone else. We sit in here to be equipped. We sit in here to be built up so that we can go out there and do the actual work. Do the actual ministry. I have no problem preaching through books of the Bible to show us, hey, this is where we fall short. This is what we need to be doing. Because, see, some of y'all have some things in your heart that you're sitting here going, I know I should be doing. My question to you is this why aren't you doing it? What is stopping you? Is it because we're tired? Here's the thing, man, we can sleep when we die. Like, why aren't we? Why aren't we feeding homeless people? Why aren't we like clothing the naked? And if you're sitting here and going, well, there's no one naked, go home and just YouTube Volusia Live PD. Alright? It may not be on this side of the county, but trust me, there's some naked people on the east side of the county. And it ain't that far away. Like, what about that person you work with? Like, do you even know their story? Do you even know like the things that they're facing in life? Honestly. Think about it. How many of you knew that like this week I was sick? No one? Why not? Oh, because no one asked. The students you might have known on Thursday. Hey, Mr. Lively's not here. But that's why, right? We don't ask. We don't care. We'll see you next week. Have a good week. So, what is keeping you from reaching out to someone this week? What shall we do? These are what we should do. We should produce free. You should have someone over for dinner. You should call someone or text someone throughout the week and just go, hey, is everything okay? Hey, how are you doing? Haven't seen you in a minute. Are you good? Because honestly, I'll get people that'll text me throughout the week and ask about you. And you know what my response to them is? Text them. One, I don't believe in gossiping, so I'm not gonna tell you how someone else is doing. Two. How much more would it mean if you texted them? Instead of me just going, oh, here's what's going on in their life. Think about it. This is what fruit is. We shouldn't just be Christians in word only. But also in deed. Because a lot of us I believe in Jesus. Do you? Because you believe those chairs would hold you, and guess what you did? Sat down. What does I believe in Jesus even mean? That you believe that somewhere out there that one day when I die, I'll get to go to heaven. Spoiler alert, you don't go to heaven. It doesn't tell us that in Scripture. You do get to dwell with God for all eternity, but it ain't in heaven. See, some of us we're Pharisees. We know the right words to say and we know the right things to do. And I get it. It's easy to fall into that. Some of us we're Sadducees. We just want to feel. As y'all know, I am not that person. I definitely would fall more into a Pharisee than I would a Sadducee. But some of us we we have to understand that Jesus doesn't call us to be converts, He calls us to be followers. In other words, we have to do the things that Jesus says us to do. Otherwise, we're not following. Like if I just walk out this door right now and you stay in here thinking I'm coming back, are you following me? No. And some of us, that's how we're treating Jesus. He walked out the door, ascended back to heaven, and we went, we're just gonna sit here until he gets back. I'm sorry. Where in Scripture do you get that idea from? Because I haven't seen it. In fact, Jesus says things like this: like, don't fall asleep. Do not be sleeping when the master returns. Stay awake, stay alert. In other words, do the things I've told you to do. Change. You're not perfect the way you are. Continue to grow in me. Be transformed from one degree of glory to the next. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. In other words, start thinking differently. Start doing things differently. Differently, because if you've always done what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got. So if you want different in your life, do different. What shall we do? If you're a parent in here, start doing devotions with your kids every day. They need it. Start looking at your life and going, uh oh, we got some things in our life we need to kind of change up on. Understand life doesn't exist for your comfort. You had kids, that was your choice. Now be a parent. If you're not a parent in here, because you're young or whatever the case may be, guess what? Find someone to do a devotion with. Find someone to hold you accountable throughout the week. Find someone that's gonna sit here and go, hey, do one thing a week. We talked about this weeks ago. If you do one thing a week, at the end of a year, you've done 52 different things. That's a lot. If you did 52 different things differently in your life at the end of the year, guess what? You have changed. You're not the same. For some of you, it may be just, hey, you need to have a conversation with someone. You need to talk to someone. You got some things inside. You need to get out. Find someone and have that conversation. Have dinner with someone. Clothe the naked. Some of you, look, God's calling you to a ministry. God's been telling you for a while, hey, you need to be doing this. This week, go, what is it I need to be doing? Or what is keeping me from doing the thing that God has put in front of me to do? Our challenge this week is simple. For those of you in here that say you follow Jesus, feed someone, close someone, hold a door for someone, love someone, forgive someone, pray with someone, tell someone about Jesus, and produce fruit. All you gotta do is one thing this week. And if you do one thing this week and then one thing next week, and then one thing the week after, you're going to produce fruit. But as we close today, if we were to walk up on John the Baptist, if you yourself were to walk up on John the Baptist, what would he say to you? Would you be a Brut of Viper? Would you be one going, hey, I got all the answers, got it all figured out, doing all the right things? Would he be calling you to repentance? Think about that. And then find one thing this week you're gonna do different. So, Father God, I ask and I pray. That you be with us, Father, as we move through. That God, if there's anyone in here that that you've just been like tugging on that heart, I just pray, Father, that this be a kick in the pants to get them to go, you know what, I just need to take that step. I just need to do. I just gotta find that one thing and go do it. Father, I pray that that if there are people in here that you're sitting here going, hey, no, no, no, no, you need to see things different, that God, you give them different eyes to see it. That you clear their minds, that you erase the fog, and that Father, you just sit here and go, Hey, look, I've called you to more than this. Father, I ask and pray that as we move from this moment, that we are transformed from the inside out, and that we bear fruit in keeping repentance. Father, we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.